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Published: January 14th 2007
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Happy New Year Everyone!! Im back and fianlly up to date...
We flew to Buenos Aires on the 21st of December arriving in our hostel to meet Katie ( a girl from leeds which we met in Bolivia)
B:A is the third largest city in Latin America so its pretty big! Set on a grid system and sort of reminded us of Barcelona. We stayed in the city centre at Avenida de Maya, known for its Art Nouveau and Art Deco constructions, decorative domes on the top of buildings and loads of coffee, empanada and chocolate shops! However we checked into the Milhouse Hostel- as described in the guide book as a 'party hostel', my first impressions were of a very disorganised students' union yet we seemed to spend a lot of time in there, may be because the staff were so good looking!
I wish i could say that i spent the 10 days leading up to new year doing cultural activities spending my time in art galleries, dancing tango or seeing the sights and admiring the architecture but that would be a lie... ..
The
Ship!
For you Dad........ first day we spent shopping in Sante Fe, the clothes are amazing with millions of vintage shops and lovely boutiques! All a bargain! We also sample the famous Argentinean steak which we had heard so much about and the fine red wine! Time to stop being vegetarian after 3 months!
I did see some sights.....
Palermo
A pretty green area with wide avenues and older cobbled streets, the really nice area of B.A
Here we saw the famous dog walkers! (professional dog walkers!) Sometimes they woulsd have up to 12 dogs, don’t know how they don’t get all tangled up or lost!
Here we went to a beautiful park with a lake and rose bush gardens before going to a design fair with new young designers.
Next day more shopping….. We were also cooked a traditional Israeli breakfast by a group staying in our hostel which was V.good!
Christmas Day
Christmas day was certainly very different for me... christmas in the middle of summer (it reached 43 degrees on christmas day!!) Christmas dinner consisted of steak, red wine (lots of both and definately no brussel sprouts!) and a few tears for each of us!
Katie
Wonderful Katie who we spent christmas and new year with Most argentines celebrate 'christmas' on christmas eve and so by early evening on the 25th the city seemed pretty much back to normal.
Recoleta
- La Recoleta Cemetory, one of the worlds most remarkable burial grounds . In 1720 Francisan monks set up a monastery because of the areas tranquility perfect for " Recollection" created 100 years later . The tradition is that coffins are stacked up in multi-generations of family vaults rather than buried under separate grave stones, there is apparantly a long waiting list and money and status in life count more!
Evita was buried here.
Also next to the cemetory is the gleaming white "Basilica Nuestra Senora del Pilar" a church!
New Years Eve, again an odd evening of unorganisation ( just like at home)
The sun set on 2006 whilst I started to watch a big free tango show and classical concert in the main avenue of BsAs, this would of been great but we soon got shushed by the locals so moved on and then I spent night disco dancing in a huge stylish open air club, that oddly, had a pond right in the middle of it (needless to
Punta Del Este, Uraguay
Crazy hand coming out of the beach! say some of us left a lot wetter than we had arrived). We stayed til dawn and watched the first beautiful sunrise of 2007.
Once our hangovers had worn off a group of us decided to have a few days relaxing on the beaches in Uruaguay. It turned out to be rather more difficult to get there than it should have been-a 4 hour journey became a 10hour epic! But we got there only to find it is right in the middle of high season and the hostels think it reasonable to double their prices!!! Again had some more steak ( me and kate started off sharing but its just too tempting to have our own) also think we over did it on the cheese..my taste has aquired dad! med-rare steak, also started to like mustard and we ordered a cheese plate, the waiter asked us if we were French!
Now back in BsAs , found there was no room at the inn so had to sort of improvize for the night, tv room couches were quite comfy!
We fianlly managed to visit those art galleries, see the sights, take lots of pictures and generally
enjoy the culture. We walked from the hostel through Recoleta to Palermo to Museo de Arte Latinamericano de Buenos Airies ( MALBA) It was a long walk but saw so much on the way. I LOVE B.A.
La Boca - located in the capital southern eastern corner, its a working class riverside neighbourhood known as the " Republica de la Boca" since 1882 when a group of local youths declared thet the barrio was seceding from the country. All the houses were coloured and there was a great atmosphere in the streets with tango and all sorts to see. We walked around the La Boca football stadium, unfortunately its out of season to see a game but it was still exciting, apparatly the atmoshere is wild in there.
PATAGONIA
We eventually got back on to the traveling path and set off to Patagonia with an 18 hour journey to Puerto Madryn
The bus was like a moving hotel! huge seats that virtually lie down, 3 course meal with wine , 2 films and breakfast in the morning, we didnt want to get off! we set of with an irish girl called Naomi and
Federico, staff at Millhouse
We took pics of all the staff as we stayed in the hostel for so long!!! think they thought we were never going to leave! a girl called Mia to meet Wez, also from ireland, and 3 Israeli boys who had breakfast waiting for us and welcomed us into their group.
It is great being in a big group, everyone cooking together is fun and saves loads on money, we all hired cars the next day and drove the circuit of Peninsular Valdes. Unfortuantely the whales had immigrated so we didnt see any ( although we can follow them to New Zealand) However it is one of the most significant marine reserves with many animal colonies living there.
It took us quite a while to get going but when we did it was a lovely drive, we stopped for a picnic by the bluest waters while the boys all jumped in then continued on to see penguins, seals and elephant sea lions. On the way home we managed to walk to a cliff edge to watch the sunset which was beautiful.
The next mission is to Ushuaia... another 18 hr bus journey, was a great laugh with 8 of us, we are now in a town of nothing called Rio Gallegos waiting to get a bus and ferry tomorrow to the end of the
earth! We have a little apartment for the night and just finished cooking and eating dinner with the family. No idea what to expect from Ushuaia so excited, we would love to go to Antartica but just dont have enough time left to see the rest of Argentina..oh well maybe next time !!!
Will let you know how it is at the end of the earth
Bye xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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Vixter
non-member comment
You sexy thing you
Oh Hannah I am so wildly jealous it looks like you are having the most amazing time! Also your hair looks amazing! You look absolutely fantastic. Ill email you pics of our extensive new year! Big loves to both you and kate Love ya xxxx